594 SlMl'LlFle ATKJN OF ENHiLJSll. 



nunciations. I cannot enlarge on this topic now, but I should 

 like to emphasise the desirability of having some properly con- 

 stituted authority to determine specific cases of disputed pro- 

 nunciation. Of course, periodic revisions of judgment would 

 have to be made, but the same would apply to the general system 

 of simplification. At present we are at a dead-lock. Usage 

 and custom are as powerful as they have ever been, but our 

 grammarians are as unchanging as the Pyramids, and so stupid 

 that they cannot even agree among themselves about gram- 

 matical terminology. 



If any writer of an English grammar were to accept the 

 Split Infinitive, for example, he would be treated by the pedants 

 with such contumely that he would have to recant. We Eng- 

 lish-speaking people are like Laocoons in the deadly grip of the 

 pedant-snakes. 



In conclusion, I should like to make it clear that I mean to 

 be only moderate in my demand for change — not like the Pro- 

 fessors of Language whom Gulliver met in Laputa, one of 

 whom only wished to abolish all polysyJIablcs, while the other 

 actually wished to abolish all zvords whatsoever. 



Cattle Ranching in Rhodesia.— At the fifty-first 

 general meeting of the Liebig's Extract of Meat Co., Ltd., held 

 in London during August, the Chairman stated that the Com- 

 pany had, on iits ranches in Rhodesia, a nucleus herd of over 

 20,000 head of cattle, which are being graded up by the importa- 

 tion, from time to time, of Sussex and Aberdeen Angus bulls 

 and heifers, the first cross calves of both these strains showing 

 marked superiority in weight of the native cattle, to which tl-ey 

 do not appear to be inferior in hardiness. 



South African Asbestos.— The Imijerial Institute- 

 has issued a report on a small consignment of blue asbestos 

 which had been sent from South Africci in 1915. Samples of 

 the consignment were submitted to several firms of manufac- 

 turers and merchants for expressions of opinion. Three firms 

 who utilise blue asbestos placed the value of the material re- 

 presented by the samples at from £28 to i.co per ton. The 

 demand in the United Kingdom for crocidolite asbestos, to 

 which variety the sample belonged, appears to be somewhat 

 limited in comparison with that for the chrysotile variety. 



